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Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past Ghadar Centennial Conference Proceedings October 2013

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Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past Ghadar Centennial Conference Proceedings October 2013 i Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past Ghadar Centennial Conference Proceedings October 2013 Edited by Satwinder Kaur Bains Published by the Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies University of the Fraser Valley Abbotsford, BC, Canada Centre for Indo Canadian Studies, 2013 University of the Fraser Valley www.ufv.ca/cics ISBN 978-0-9782873-4-4 Bibliothèque et Archives Canada | Library and Archives Canada Partial funding for this publication has been received from The Office of Research, Engagement and Graduate Studies at UFV The Centre for Indo Canadian Studies Ghadar Conference Proceedings 33844 King Road Abbotsford, BC V2S 7M8 Canada Edited by: Satwinder Kaur Bains EPUB Produced by: David Thomson The link to the epub can be found at: www.ufv.ca/cics/research/cics-research-projects/ Cover Design: Suvneet Kaur Bains Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction ix Satwinder Kaur Bains PART ONE GHADAR LITERATURE 1 2 The 1907 Anti-Punjabi Hostilities in Washington State: 3 Prelude to the Ghadar Movement Paul Englesberg 3 Rebellious Rhymes: Understanding the History of 21 Radical South Asian Immigrants on the West Coast of North America through the Ghadar Narrative Gurpreet Singh PART TWO SOCIAL JUSTICE 45 4 Gadar Movement and the Role of Irish Americans 47 Inder Singh 5 A Comparison of the Literature of the Sikh Gurus 65 and the Writings of the Ghadar Party Amandip Singh Sidhu 6 The Ghadar Movement: Revisiting its Genesis 81 and Exploring Prospects of Another Ghadar Movement in Contemporary India Khushvir Saini v PART THREE TRANSNATIONAL 97 HISTORIOGRAPHIES 7 His Master’s Voice?: Ubayd Allah Sindhi’s 99 Re-interpretation of Orthodox Islam as Inclusive Revolutionary Ideology Mohammed Ayub Khan 8 The Ghadar Movement and its Impact on 117 South Asian Canadian Women Rishma Johal 9 Peer Reviewers 141 10 Contributors 143 vi Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the invaluable financial and moral support for this project from the Research, Engagement and Graduate Studies Office (Research Office) at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). From the very beginning when we decided to host a conference on the centenary of the Ghadar movement’s genesis, the Research Office gave its full support for the initiative. The Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past conference held at UFV on October 17th, 2013 brought together scholars and students who presented their work amongst colleagues, friends and the public. Their papers make up this special collection of papers marking the centenary. Special thanks go to all the anonymous reviewers of the papers who read, critiqued, and improved the papers submitted for this publication. I would like to thank all those that participated in the stimulating event as well as the many people who contributed to its success. Poets who joined us at the end of the conference to share evocative and inspiring poetry that stirred the souls of Ghadarites one hundred years ago, were warmly appreciated. The conference was the culmination of a year’s work by the Centre for Indo Canadian Studies (CICS) at UFV to commemorate the centenary of this important movement in Canada. Although the movement actively lasted from 1913-1919 in Canada, its impact and repercussions were felt well up until India’s independence from British rule in 1947. I would also like to thank David Thomson, friend and colleague at UFV who provided us with the support necessary to produce an e-publication for this collection of papers. As well, my colleague and compatriot Sharanjit Kaur Sandhra, Coordinator at the Centre for Indo Canadian Studies, deserves much thanks for providing all the support necessary to successfully complete this work. Satwinder Kaur Bains, Editor Director, Centre for Indo Canadian Studies University of the Fraser Valley May 2015 vi vii viii INTRODUCTION INTERPRETING GHADAR: ECHOES OF VOICES PAST SATWINDER KAUR BAINS This publication is made up of a selection of papers presented at a conference held in Oct, 2013 at the University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada to mark an important moment in North American history. The centennial conference, Interpreting Ghadar: Echoes of Voices Past explored the early twentieth century Ghadar (revolution) movement (established in 1913) that began in North America and quickly established itself around the globe wherever members of the Indian Diaspora existed. The movement’s revolutionary genesis and goal was to rid India of British rule and to fight for fair and just treatment for those Indian immigrants living in Canada and the United States of America. Using an interdisciplinary approach the conference provided a venue for scholars to present diverse viewpoints on the Ghadar. The conference papers in this collection attempt to fill the acknowledged void created by a porous and omission-oriented Canadian history of South Asian historical events and movements. The papers are also located within a rich and vibrant year (2013) where many Universities, Cities, organizations, agencies, media and individuals marked the centenary in various ways. Conferences, proclamations, markers, gatherings, poetry readings and academic discourses were part of the centennial year commemorations across North America. Early Indian migrants to the Pacific Northwest (first recorded arrival was in 1902) arrived without fully realizing the racially hierarchical realities of colonial expansion in North America and the practicing doctrines, ideologies and practices of colonialism in an era of high imperialism (Buchignani, Indra & Srivastiva, 1985) . As well, at that time Irish, German, Italian and Jewish immigrants in the United States and Canada were involved in radical socialist labour movements, demanding social reform in the industrial labour markets (Ogden, 2011). Canada’s ‘whites only’ policy encouraged a west coast racism-fuelled version of European origin settler communities as the order of the day in the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth viii ix century. European settlers believed in the inherent unassimilable nature of Asian immigrants and countered their migration with racist legislation and laws to prevent their entry. Popular Canadian attitudes led by hostile stereotypes created aggressive, prejudicial and often violent encounters with Indian immigrants. Indian immigrants, who were looking to create new lives in Canada, saw that British colonial rule had created two tiers of citizens and it was made painfully obvious to them that they were in the lower tier. Under the Raj, poor treatment of Indian citizens in India by the British gave them an inferior bargaining position in the new land. The western frontier was the last bastion for colonial expansion, creating immense human mobility from all parts of the world to meet the need for industrial growth. This movement of peoples created a racial tension that would affect the many diverse populations living in North America, like the Punjabi’s. As Odgen (2012) points out, “The Punjabis arrived in the midst of this western moment and became for a time its political lightening rod, simultaneously indispensable labour and indispensable political fodder.” Much racial strife and outright racism was experienced by new immigrants and their lives were increasingly becoming untenable. The time was right for Indian revolutionary intellectuals to begin to articulate their demands for an equitable and just society (both in Canada and India) in consort with the other marginalized immigrant groups, while striking out on their own by initiating an ideologically secular pro-national movement. Anderson’s (2006) concept of an imagined nation provides the frame to understand the impetus how Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims came together with a singular purpose – to work and even die for the cause. As Benedict Anderson in his work on imagined communities (2006) suggests, “regardless of the actual inequality and exploitation that may prevail in each, the nation is always conceived as a deep, horizontal comradeship. Ultimately it is this fraternity that makes it possible, over the past two centuries, for so many millions of people, not so much to kill, as willingly to die for such limited imaginings” (p.7). Intellectuals and average wage labourers came together in Astoria, Oregon in June 1913 to form an organization that would mobilize Indians all over North America and around the globe to fight injustice against them and their brethren. The founding member’s penultimate goal was to rid India of the British and to proclaim self-rule, but they also articulated social reforms to create a more just and equitable x society in North America and India. This movement would span many continents and last for over three decades. According to Puri (1980) the double jeopardy of oppression in a foreign land - racial hostility, fear and a sense of alienation lead to the genesis of the Ghadar movement in North America. The goal of the conference was to examine and theorize the movement’s transnational revolutionary connections across geographies and literatures, transnational historiographies and action towards social reform inherent in the ideals of Ghadarites. The three broad themes were: Gadhar literature and revolution, Colonialism and Social Justice, and Negotiating Transnational Historiographies. The poetics and politics of the Ghadar movement print literature gave voice to the Ghadarite aspirations of a free India and the social conditions immigrants were forced to endure in North America. Pro- Indian independence materials included newspapers,
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